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How to keep your children cool as they sleep in hot weather

Are your kids struggling to sleep in the heat? Here are some tips on how to help them drift off in the summer

Our core body temperature has to dip for us to fall asleep – this is the same for toddlers. The perfect room temperature for sleep is about 16 to 22 degrees, but what do you do if it’s much warmer and you don’t have air conditioning? Here are some tips:

Put your child’s pillowcase or favourite toy in a plastic bag, then the fridge for a few hours before bed. When you take it out and put it in their bed, they’ll have a nice cool pillow to help them drift off with, or a cool toy to hug themselves to sleep with.

If you have a fan, keep it on a low setting by a window to blow cool air into the room.

Heat rises, so if you have an attic, keep the hatch open so it has somewhere to go.

Make sure duvets have a low tog rating or just use one cotton sheet.

Sweating is our body’s natural way of cooling down. Even though it may seem like sleeping naked is a sensible option when it’s hot, wearing light cotton pyjamas can actually help, as cotton is the ideal fabric to absorb sweat.

Create a draught: open windows and bedroom doors throughout the house.